The Risk and Potentiality of Engaging with Sustainability Problems in Education—A Pragmatist Teaching Approach

This article engages in the discussion about education's role in relation to sustainability problems, a debate characterised by a tension between two legitimate concerns: a concern about the instrumentalisation of education, and a concern for the urgent need of widespread engagement and mobilisation for coping with the consequences of severe socio-ecological problems. The authors argue for an approach that takes both concerns seriously. Drawing on transactional didactic theory—underpinned by a pragmatist perspective on the interplay of continuity and change through the phases of habit, crisis and creativity—they illustrate that engagement with real-world societal problems does not inevitably result in the instrumentalisation of education. It can, on the contrary, open up a space for newness, creativity, freedom and pluralism. Yet, realising this unique educative potential does not happen automatically. It requires specific didactical work, specific forms of teaching. Through a practical example, the authors illustrate how teachers can stage problematic situations and inquiries in such a way that sustainability problems are brought to the table, turned into a common matter of concern and made free by giving the students possibilities to renew the world. Thus, they turn the question whether or not to engage with real-world problems into the question how to do so.     

Use of the Collaborative Drawing Technique in School Counseling Practicum: An Illustration of Family Systems

According to the extant school consultation literature, counselors can effectively use brief family interventions and family assessment procedures in schools as part of a collaborative consultation approach. School counselors, however, often lack training in family systems theory, because counselor training programs tend to use individual counseling models. When used in a school counselor practicum course, the Collaborative Drawing Technique (CDT; G. M. Smith, 1985) introduces counselors‐in‐training to family systems concepts and lays the foundation for postgraduate training in family systems. The authors use a case illustration to explore paradigmatic shifts in trainees' case conceptualizations as a function of their use of the CDT with a family.     

Some Practical Aspects of Multiple Choice Examinations

This paper describes the practical work up of a multiple choice examination system in electrical engineering. A graphics tablet is used for inputting the data. The pedagogical advantages obtained by statistical handling of the data are given and illustrated by some examples.     

学者访谈——访确精扎布教授

本人受内蒙古师范大学学报的委托对著名语言学家内蒙古大学教授确精扎布老师进行学术访谈,时间为2011年1月24日,地点在确精扎布老师学府花园的家里。     

DETECTING EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED ITEM BIAS USING THE ITERATIVE LOGIT METHOD

A test for mental arithmetic was constructed, consisting of items written in Dutch (the subjects' native language), Spanish, and Roman numerals. A group of 286 subjects received some information on Spanish numerals. The group was randomly split into a Spanish Group and a Roman Group. The Spanish Group received further instruction on Spanish numerals, while the Roman Group got instruction on Roman numerals. Checks on the experimental manipulations showed that the Spanish Group had better knowledge of Spanish numerals than the Roman Group, whereas the Roman Group had better knowledge of Roman numerals. From the total test two subtests were constructed: a 30-item Dutch/Spanish subtest (15 items in Dutch and 15 in Spanish), and a 25-item Dutch/Roman subtest (15 items in Dutch and 10 in Roman). The Dutch items were unbiased between the Spanish and Roman groups, whereas the Spanish items of the Dutch/Spanish subtest were biased against the Roman Group, and the Roman items of the Dutch/Roman subtest were biased against the Spanish Group. The iterative logit method was applied to the two subtests. The method showed very good results in detecting biased items.